Do not adjust your monitor if you see spots. Or walleye. Or a meanmouth.

The first of many largemouth spotted bass.

As has become a tradition in our yearly road trips, after Karen drives out from Maryland and picks me up at an airport somewhere out west, and we fish the following Wednesday.  In 2019, it was Rainy Lake on the Minnesota-Canada border.  In 2020, it was Lewis and Clark Lake part of the Missouri River system on the Nebraska-South Dakota border.  In 2021, it was back to Rainy Lake.

Karen has left it up to me where to fish, and this year I chose Table Rock Lake in the Ozark territory of Missouri.  We stayed at a hotel the first night, and I didn't find a stash of money hidden in the walls.

This was an experience that wasn't turning out well even before we got on the water.  First, I booked a guide with Fishing Booker, and all I heard from him was the robo, "Thanks for giving me a deposit!" email.  I sent a message a couple weeks later asking where we would be launching from and NOTHING.

After cancelling with him, I went to Fishing Booker again, and because of his positive ratings, I booked a trip with Eric from Eric's Elite Guide Service.  Got the robo response and immediately messaged asking where we would likely be fishing so Karen and I could book a hotel nearby.  He responded within a few hours.

It was a Wednesday trip, and the day before as Karen and I were cruising toward Branson, Missouri, Eric called me.  He had boat issues.  I was afraid he wanted to cancel, but he gave the option of starting to fish at 3 p.m. (initial launch was supposed to be 6 a.m. and fishing for four hours) while he commandeered a backup boat from one of his guides.  I told him I would mull it over and call back.

One of three species I caught for
the first time -- a longear sunfish.

It was HOT at this point and didn't seem to be letting up for the next day.  Mid-90s temps, and we would be fishing right in the middle of it.  I asked Karen what she wanted to do, and she gave me the usual, "It's up to you."  

Thinking we would have to stay another night in Branson since it would be a later trip, and it would be too late reserving another hotel room had me on the fence.  But I found a tent site open at the local KOA.  Called Eric back and told him, "Fish on!"

Instead of fishing at 6 a.m. as originally planned, we had the morning free.  I wanted to go to Pea Ridge Battlefield but Karen suggested another nearby battlefield, Wilson's Creek, and we could visit Pea Ridge the next day.  So we drove to the former.

When we got there, the parking lot at the visitors center looked full, and there were a couple of park rangers heading us off at the pass.

"Are you here for the ceremony?"

"What ceremony?"

"The one for the 161st anniversary of the battle."

Then we saw a large canopy with a bunch of people underneath escaping the heat and the about-to-be-sweltering temps.

It turned out, we stumbled on the exact day of the Battle of Wilson's Creek 161 years later.  Of course we obligated to stay and drove the battlefield tour afterwards.  Spoiler alert:  The Confederates won.  

Looking back on how the events unfolded, if it wasn't for Eric's boat issues, we probably would have fished in the morning and visited Wilson's Creek the next day missing the ceremony. 

After leaving Wilson's Creek, with the sun getting higher in the sky, we meandered through the winding roads of the Ozarks to Baxter Marina.  As the crow flies from Wilson Creek, it's about 20 miles.  As it drives, it's 120, or so it seemed.

We found Eric at the end of the dock already waiting for us, and boarded the boat.

His borrowed steed was a Skeeter of some flavor with a quiet engine even at full throttle.  His regular boat was a 2022 model that had a compressor issue, and he had to be towed back to the marina the day before.

Eric was confident the bite was on, but I was sweating and downing water not sure of what to expect.

After about 20 minutes knifing through the water, we stopped at a spot maybe 30 feet from shore.  It looked shallow but since Table Rock Lake was a reservoir produced from damning the White River in the 1950s, looks were deceiving.  It was roughly 30 feet to the bottom of the lake at that spot.

Eric rigged a "drop shot" -- a sinker with a hook tied 8-10 inches from the weight.  Threaded with a plain nightcrawler on the hook, I let the bait sink and hit the bottom of the lake.

"You have a fish on," Eric calmly said while still trying to assemble Karen's rig.

Double spots?!  What's it mean?

I jerked the rod, and there was indeed a something fighting on the other end.  Cranked on the spinning reel to bring the fish to the surface, and it looked like a largemouth bass about 14 inches.

But it wasn't a largemouth.  It was a close relation, a spotted bass.  "Spots" look almost exactly like largemouth but their mouths aren't as big, and they don't sprout more than smallmouth bass size.  A 14-incher like the first one I pulled up was picture worthy.

An easy way to identify a spot over a largemouth is to feel the fish's tongue -- spots have a small sandpaper-like patch on the tip.

That first spot was the beginning of a short frenzy.  Karen caught one.  I caught one.  Karen caught another.  And all the fish were legal size, although we didn't keep any.

I think I had 11 fish while Karen had at least as many before we motored to another spot.  Here I reeled in what looked like a smallmouth bass, but it wasn't a smallie.  Read about The Legend of the One-Eyed Meanmouth Bass.

Double walleye?!  What's it mean?

We trekked to another area and still tantalizing fish with a nightcrawler and found walleye territory.  Minimum keeper size on Table Rock is 18 inches, and we boated three while having to release a few that didn't measure up.  Karen had the biggest walleye at 22 inches.

After four hours, I counted 18 fish for me.  Karen didn't keep track but I'm sure she had at least as many.

Sometimes our guides are more pumped than we are, and Eric was sure the late start made for better fishing despite the heat.  The breeze was comforting and maybe the fish were on the cusp of fall feeding.

Karen and I caught our first spotted bass, and I caught my first meanmouth bass, plus another first, a long-ear sunfish,

Definitely in you're in the Branson, Missouri, itching to land fish, check with Eric's Elite Guide Service on availability.

From water to flame, not many -- if any -- fish
taste better than walleye cooked two hours after
pulling them out of the water.

Want to see more pictures from the trip from Utah and Canyonlands and Arches and the New River, click on the picture below:

The legend of the one-eyed meanmouth bass

This one-eyed meanmouth bass could not wait to feed again. 
No, really.  It could not wait.

If a blind squirrel can find a nut, the odds are way better for a one-eyed fish.

Fishing today on Table Rock Lake in Missouri with Karen and Eric of Eric's Elite Guide Service, I caught what appeared to be a smallmouth bass.  But Eric said, "Hold on a second," and lifted the fish.  He put a finger in the fish's mouth and proclaimed, "No, it's a meanmouth bass!"

Meanmouth bass are hybrids -- offspring from smallmouth bass and spotted bass spawning together. You know, momma spotted bass lays the eggs, papa smallmouth fertilizes them, or vice versa.

Spotted bass look a lot like largemouth, but their lateral lines are darker and their mouths don't extend past their eyes.  Sometimes smallmouth and largemouth breed, but it's rarer since they usually don't share the same habitat.  They might swim in the same body of water but live on different sides of the track.

Spotted bass are found in southern states from Texas to Florida.  Table Rock Lake is one of those bodies of waters where "spots" and smallies run together, so it's definitely possible to find a hybrid meanmouth at Table Rock.

Which I did today.  

And caught the same one twice.

Without taking a DNA sample and sending it off to a lab, the easiest way to differentiate a meanmouth from a smallmouth is to check the fish's "tongue."  Meanmouth and spotted bass have a small sandpaper-like patch on their tongue.

This meanmouth I caught -- verified by Eric checking the fish's tongue that it indeed have that patch -- was missing its left eye.  Maybe it had lost it getting hooked before?  A battle over territory with a walleye?  At the wrong end of the claw with a crayfish? Who knows.

Eric tossed the fish back, and I dropped my line baited with another nightcrawler to the bottom of the lake -- about 25 feet of water in this spot

Waited a couple minutes dead-sticking the bait and felt another bite.  I set the hook, reeled the fish in and it looked like another meanmouth.  No, wait.  It was THE SAME meanmouth with only one eye.  We all laughed -- that fish must have been hungry for nightcrawlers.  Eric said he had seen some weird stuff -- like three different times people in his boat hooking the same fish at the same time -- but never catching the same fish twice.

The joke the rest of the trip when getting a bite but reeling up a bare hook was that the one-eyed meanmouth bass had finally figured out a way to get the worm without getting caught. 

This is just a tease from today's trip where I caught two other species I had never caught before, plus some tasty walleye.  Guess who caught the biggest fish too?  Stay tuned ....